Improved device for operating pumps on railroad-stations



UNITEDJSTATES PATENT QFFIGE.

HIRAM H. CALL, OF ROHRERSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVED DEVICE FOR OPERATING PUMPS 0N RAILROAD-STATIONS.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 71,695, dated December 3, 1867.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HIRAM H. GALL, of Rohrerstown, in the county of Lancaster and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Improved Arrangement for Operating Pumps at Railroad-Stations; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the accompanyin g drawings, making apart of this speciiication, in which- Figure l is a perspective view of a portion of a railroad-track, showing a truck, rockers, 85o., in place. Fig. 2 is a cross-section of the same. Fig. 3 shows the rocking levers It, springs F, horizontal rock-shaft R S, and vertical rock-shaft S. Fig. 4 is a front view of the vertical shaft, spur-wheels, and crank-connection with the pistons ofthe pumps P P.

The nature of my invention consists in providin g rocking levers on the side of the rail, so that the car-wheels will depress the ends alternately in passing over, connecting said rockers beneath the rails by a horizontal shaft across the track and at right angles to it, said shaft to be terminated by a vertical shaft oscillated so as to impart motion either directly to (or through the intervention of pawls and spur-wheels) the pistons of ahorizontal pump on each side, so as to utilize the motion and weight of each wheel in a train of cars, with its freight, for pumping water into a tank or reservoir to supply a subsequent train in its passage over the road.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will describe the construction and arrangement thereof, the operation being self-evident.

To produce an oscillating or reciprocating action to a vertical shaft, S, I connect a horizontal shaft, R S, below the rails in suitable bearings with a pair of rockers, R. These rockers are placed on the outside of each rail, hollowed out on the upper face, with a radius of the car-wheels used on the track, or nearly, the ends recurved and projecting above the upper face of the rail, say, two or three inches at the rounded ends. The outer portion of the wheel will depress the one end of the rocker, and in passing off the other end will be depressed, so that each successive wheel of all the trucks in the train, in passing over, will actuate the rockers and communicate the aci' tion tothe'vertical shaftS by its attachment at base with the horizontal shaft H S, which connects said rockers R.

The oscillating motion of the vertical shaft can be directly employed to working a pair ot' pumps adapted to the same by any of the ordinary means in use; but it is desirable to adapt the action of the pumps so as to be operated by a train of ears in passing over the road at the highest rate of speed.

To reduce the action of the pistons I employ a pair of cogged or spur wheels, A A, of equal size and cast, meshing into each other, supported in bearings E C, so that the junction of the pair of wheels is opposite the center and contiguous to the vertical shaft S, to the face of which shaft next to the wheels and at a suicient height above them two pawls, W, each held by a pivot on the shaft, and terminated 'with a bevel-ended hook, to catch into the cogs of each wheel on the outer circumference, as shown. These pawls W are kept to their contact with the cogs by a spring, V, between them. Thus, as the shaft oscillates, the pawls alternately reach forward ratchetfashion, and on its return draws the wheel inward, converting the reciprocatin g motion into rotary.

To the axis of each wheel there is a crank, G, and connecting-rod D, which operates the piston P of the pumps P P. These pumps may be made to throw any amount of water, from five to ten gallons, by each stroke of the piston. A train of cars with thirty wheels on a side would throw three hundred gallons from both pumps into the reservoir.

I claim no novelty in the pump, crank, and piston-action. I am also aware that an improved mode of operating railroad station pumps was patented in 1858, No. 19,304, in which the cars had to be provided with a roller and toggle-joint for operating `double inclines alternately by means of levers producing a reciprocatin g motion of the piston of the pump, claiming the combination of the roller and inclines, and arrangement of the levers, which combination and arrangement I do not claim; nor do I claimV compound levers and gearing when actuated by the yielding of the rails of the track of a railroad; but I am not aware of a rocking or reciprocating motion obtained directly from the wheels of the cars as they pass over the track without any extra fixture to the ordinary truck-wheels, or interfering with their ordinary action on the rails, the ends being so curved that the Wheels in either direction Strike the rounded end of the rocking lever, and so as to cause it to yield with ease, and yet exert its power by the gravi tating force of the Wheel and oar alone, even when the ears are empty, aud to operate a pair of pumps, or, indeed, several pairs connected, and any number actuated in a similar manner Separately.

What I claim as my invention7 and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. The rockers R, combined by a horizontal shaft, H S, actuating a vertical rockin g shaft,

S, arranged and operated substantially in the HIB-AM H. CALL.

Witnesses:

Y WM. B. WILEY,

JACOB STAUFFER. 

